Artist&#39;s brush holder



NW. 22, 1966 E. v. LE BLANC ET AL 3,286,847

ARTIST'S BRUSH HOLDER Filed Jan. 15, 1965 FIG?) E. GEORGE GALlNOS ATTORNEY United States Patent O 3,286,847 ARTISTS BRUSH HOLDER Edward V. LeBlanc, 1080 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington, Mass, and Evangelos George Galinos, 45 Greenwood Rd., Burlington, Mass.

Filed Jan. 15, 1965. Ser. No. 425,881 1 Claim. (Cl. 211-65) This invention relates generally to artists supplies and more particularly to an artists paint brush holder adapted to be attached to the rear edge of a pallette.

Painters while in the process of painting usually lay their brushes down on any suitable object that will hold them when utilizing a different brush containing a different color. In this manner the painter runs the risk of having the brush pick up foreign matter or in the case where a jar is used to stack several brushes, of neutralizing the color previously achieved by blending on the pallette. Of the devices now utilized in the industry the majority do not make provision for the isolation of the brush tips from each other and others adapted to be attached to a pallette, occupy an area of the pallette so as to make portions of the pallette unavailable for the blending of the colors. Since painting is not confined to a studio where facilities for storing the paint brushes in a fixed position adjacent the easel could be provided, this invention allows the brushes to be immediately available to the painter and in proximity to the paint supply.

Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved paint brush holder adapted to be attached to a pallette to maintain the brushes in immediate proximity to the painter and with adjacent brush tips well spaced from each other.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a brush holder of approximately trapezoidal shape with resilient arms projecting from only about the middle third of the front surface of the holder, and with the entire width of said front surface in contact with the rear edge of the pallette, for a maximum of stability with minimum occupation of pallette surface.

Other objects of this invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

Briefly stated the features of this invention are to provide an improved type of artists paint brush holder normally of one piece construction and adapted to be attached to a pallette so as to be always readily accessible to the painter. Specifically this invention consists of a holder having a series of aligned apertures of graduated size and linearly spaced from each other and having a depth sufiicient to retain the brush handles firmly. Furthermore an attaching member is formed integral with the brush holder which is universal in character so as to be utilized with various thickness of pallettes such as the standard wooden pallette in the block pad type.

To the accomplishment of this and the foregoing related ends, the present invention then consists of the means hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the annexed drawing and the following description setting forth in detail certain means in the carrying out of this invention, such disclosed means illustrating, however, but one of the various ways in which the principle in this invention may be employed.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of the improved paint brush holder having brushes inserted therein and attached to a pallette.

FIG. 2 is a view in perspective of the brush holder.

FIG. 3 is a View taken in line 33 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a view from the rear of the brush holder.

Reference is now to be had to the drawings wherein an illustrative embodiment of the improved brush holder is shown, and a construction made in accordance with the 3,286,847 Patented Nov. 22, 1966 ice present invention and designated by the reference numeral 10 is shown.

The brush holder 10 consists of an elongated trapezoidal block 12 having a front 14, and back, 16, walls and end members 18. The upper surface 20 of the block 12 has a series of linearly aligned holes 22 of graduated size spaced from each other and extending through the body of the block 12 and through the bottom 24 thereof. Extending from about the middle third of the front wall 14 of the block 12 are a pair of resilient arms 26 and 28 which are formed integral with the block 12 and have a width less than that of said block 12. The arms 26 and 28 extend angularly from the front wall 14 in such a manner that the tips 30 and 32 converge at a point spaced from the wall 14. The tips 30 and 32 have upwardly and downwardly curved radii for a purpose to be de scribed hereinafter. The brush holder may be formed of any lightweight material such as wood or metal but for purposes of simplicity in manufacture we have found that it can be very simply and efficiently molded from any variety to the known plastics. Also the inherent resilent characteristics of plastic such as polystyrene permits the arms 26 and 28 to enter into snap engagement with the edge of a pallette 34 as shown in FIG. 1.

As illustrated in FIG. 3 the holes 22 are tapered downwardly. Since practically all ar-tists brushes 35, have tapered shafts, 38, the tapering of the holes 22 ensures a sliding frictional engagement of the shaft within the hole to permit inadvertent dislodgement because of the painters movement and also limits intolerant motion of the brushes which would be a distraction to the painter. Also, each of the holes 22 is graduated in size with respect to the adjacent ones.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, one form of this invention has been to provide an isosceles trapezoidal holder with each of the holes 22 with a slightly different angle of incidence with the upper surface of the block 12. In this manner a fan shaped arrangement of the brushes can be maintained to allow easy insertion and withdrawal and furthermore maintains the tips of the brushes in spaced relation to each other.

In use the arms 26 and 28 are snapped into engagement with an edge of the pallette 34 so that the block extends substantially perpendicular to the surface of the pallette. The curved radius of each of the tips 30 and 32 allows the edge of the pallette to be easily fitted therebetween. The brush handles 36 are inserted into the holes 22 and due to the varying angles of incidence of the holes 22 with the upper surface 20, of the block 12, extend in a fan shaped arrangement as shown in FIG. 1. Since the brush handles are tapered there is a sliding friction fit within the holes to retain the brushes firmly therein.

It will thus be obvious to those skilled in the art that a construction made in accordance with this invention will provide convenient means to store artists brushes and yet make them readily available for use due to them being supported by the pallette.

While there have been described herein what are at present considered preferred embodiments of this invention it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that modifications and changes may be made therein without departing from the essence of this invention. It is therefore-to be understood that the exemplary embodiments are illustrative and not restrictive of this invention, the scope of which are defined in the appended claims, and that any modifications that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are intended to be included therein.

We claim:

For use with a painters pallette a brush holder of trapezoidal outline with parallel front and back surfaces and with a series of elongated downwardly tapered and down- Wardly converging apertures open at both ends for easy cleaning with their axes in a plane midway between the two surfaces, said plane being perpendicular to the surfaceof the pallette while the long and short parallel edges of the trapezoid are respectively above and below the surface of the pallette when the holder is in place with its front surface in full-length contact with the rear edge of the pallette, and a pair of resilient arms of substantial width extending forwardly from only the middle portion of the holder with their free ends converging toward each other for supporting the holder on the pallette said arms having curved tip portions diverging from each other for easy fitting of a pallette edge'between the arms.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 428,239 5/ 1890 Way 21165 699,259 5/ 1902 Trenhohnt 248226.5 X 2,126,766 8/1938 Gerbermann 474l 2,260,086 10/ 1941 Matter 21169 FOREIGN PATENTS 1 1,078,829 5/ 1954 France.

CLAUDE T. LEROY, Primary Examiner.

JOHN PETO, Examiner. 

